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The Crossing Project presents a vision
of Indian creativity and interaction design combining traditional
and modern technology. As computing proliferates in the world,
retaining identity becomes an important
value in the new millennium. Hence, the
time-tested visions of developing nations
and ancient living cultures can shape the
form of future information technology.
The Crossing Project is a pioneering effort bringing together
futuristic, mobile, multimedia technology and archetypal content.
With respect to technology, it questions the very form of
a computing system and the Graphical User Interface paradigm,
which has served as the substrate of modern computing systems
for thirty years.
The Crossing technology presents alternate paradigms of information
access, integrating the hand and the body in the act of computer-based
communication and learning. With respect to content, it brings
to focus
a traditional society's notion of eco-cosmic connections.
With respect to design, it incorporates the expressions of
traditional
arts and crafts in the design of expressive information delivery
devices.
The Crossing Project demonstrates futuristic forms of information
access in which the technology surrenders to the human hand.
In this information age, in which our world
has been progressively rendered abstract
and learning concepts invisible, the Crossing Project has
re-created forms that capture a civilization's primal symbols
animated thorough embedded technology.
Throughout the world, lakes, forests, mountains and rivers
have been seen as 'power spots' and concentrations of nature's
energies. Gradually mythologies grew around these spots, and
the union of myth and place created a sacred geography. They
became pilgrimage centers - crossing points - providing people
with the setting to cross over into a world of learning and
transformation. Banaras, lying by the banks of the Ganges
is the crossing point that the Crossing Project examines.
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